On Saturday afternoon at four o’ clock Anadi arrived at my flat for our ‘Saturday morning walk’… Later than usual because I had been working all day.
We set off in the hint of spring daylight and made our way to our usual haunt, the Duke of York Square, where we sat on the ground, close to the roof of a restaurant, under cover from the sudden large and unexpected drops of rain…
Wrapping our hands round the warmth of our steaming cups of coffee, we sat together exchanging news of the last two days… We hadn’t met since Friday morning to chant the Gayatri Mantra, and now the past two days were disappearing and still occurring in the moment that we shared.
Our conversation weaved and twisted in the space between us, and somehow took us to Juan le Pins… But we couldn’t remember the name! ‘It’s in that song’ I said… ‘Where do you go to my lovely…’
And so we looked up the song lyrics to find out the name of the place we were trying to remember…
And then we started to sing, sitting on the ground, huddled together on a freezing cold – late January – late afternoon… We sang the whole song – people passed by giving the couple sitting singing – with gusto – a cursory glance…
‘I’d like to busk someday’, I mused as we reached the final line…
‘Then we shall do it’ Anadi said… ‘I’ll get a guitar again, and we shall do it…’
‘I’d love that’ I said ‘What fun’….
I grew up singing along to ‘Where do you go to my lovely’
“But where do you go to, my lovely
When you’re alone in your bed?
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes, I do”
Some years ago I ran the Nice to Cannes Marathon and as the race swept through Juan le Pins at just over half way through the 26.2, I’d found myself singing the song out loud – it was a downhill stretch!
And where do we all go when we’re alone in our beds…?
Who knows? And who knows us; no one if we don’t know our self…
True intimacy is being willing to share ourselves, openly, honestly. To be our selves…
To do this we must be willing to stay present to ourselves; to breathe in and experience the stillness, the silence between each breath and experience our essence.
And then no words are needed. Words are limited in their ability to communicate our truth.
We are in every moment, we are here and there and everywhere.
We are.
And if sharing ourselves leads us to want to sing in the street, just for the fun of it or dance and play and be free to express in any way we wish – then the world will enjoy the vibration as it shimmers and glitters and sparkles with the essence of our individual unique spark of life….